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THE SOLHEIM CUPAugust 13, 2013Martin PillerAngela StanfordPARKER, COLORADO THE MODERATOR: Good afternoon. We'll go ahead and get started with Angela Stanford, joining us, as well as Gerina Piller. Thank you, ladies for joining us. She's a rookie. A captain's pick. All smiles ever since. Gerina Piller is here as well. Angela, I'm going to start with you. Last night the reception for both teams together, you all had a team bonding experience here prior earlier in the week, then flew home, then came back. And you've also been out here a couple of other times. You've been around other teams, can you give us a sense of the camaraderie or how this team feels from a leadership perspective and a team chemistry perspective. ANGELA STANFORD: I think it's been great so far. I think that this team seems to be a lot younger, they seem to be getting along great. I think the course is going to be great for this group. A bunch of young bombers is what it seems like. I'm just trying to keep up with them. So far they have just everybody's been great. Seemed to be a little more low key than years past, which I think's pretty good. They seem to be a little more mellow. Some of the younger ones. So I think just having a couple Solheim's under their belts maybe they're starting to mellow out a little bit. THE MODERATOR: You know sometimes you see rookies and they don't have the smile, they're very deadpanned and very serious and can't open up. We had Lizette Salas who was all smiles in here and Gerina hasn't stopped smiling since she was at St. Andrews. That's a different thing. Do you feel that, do you sense that? ANGELA STANFORD: Yeah, maybe I'm not phrasing that properly, but you're kind of hitting on it, they're just a care‑ free bunch. I think that says two things. One, they're very confident and two, a lot of that is contributed or is because of Meg. I think Meg, every time you see Meg, she has a smile on her face and I think the younger ones feel that, the rookies feel that, and they have‑‑ they're just very light hearted and confident and they're just a great group. THE MODERATOR: Let's talk to the rookie. Take us back to the conversation you had with her when you got the call with Meg. Tell us how it happened, what it was like. GERINA PILLER: After I saw her walking up to the 18th green and my heart just sank. And she wanted to talk to me after my round, and there was a couple of media people that I needed to address and they pulled me aside and they told me it's not a no.  And so I was like, I think that's a good thing. And so they're just like there's so many scenarios, so just wait around we got your number we'll call you when we make the decision. I said okay, thanks. So I went back to the house, and I was just going to go back with Angela when she was going back at 7 o'clock and I got a text message, where's your location? Meg wants to talk to you. So I'm like action oh, geez, we're in route right now. So we get there, and we go into the room and I'm trying to read their facial expressions and they're giving me nothing. I mean just nothing. And I'm like, oh, this could be bad. So I sit down and I'm just trying to smile and act like everything's okay. She's like, you're a great player, I watched you all year, you've played great, fortunately you're going with us to Denver for the Solheim Cup. And they, I don't really know what I looked like when my response but they said I looked like I was in a pageant. (Laughter.) I think I just put my hands over my eyes and fairways and started bawling and I don't think I've stopped smiling since. THE MODERATOR: You were on a piggyback ride with Angela Stanford walking down at St. Andrews. You guys are really good pals. How much does that help you to have somebody that you're as close to as Angela? GERINA PILLER: It's huge. Two years ago in Ireland I was blessed enough for Angela to take me to Ireland and she said, rookie, if you're going to play on these one of these days you better come see what it's all about.  So little did I know it was going to be the next year. But went to go see Killeen in Ireland and it was an experience that was‑‑ I can't thank her enough for giving me that opportunity. And that just made me want it even more. She's been an amazing role model and just I just learned so much from her. THE MODERATOR: You're a third year TOUR pro on the LPGA, you haven't won yet, you're known for your length which everybody seems to think is an advantage here. What else are you known for? What do people need to know about you and what you'll bring to this team? GERINA PILLER: I'm pretty easygoing, I think. I like to just kind of relax and have a good time, joke around, and keep it light. My main thing is we're blessed to be where we are and there's more to life than golf. So if the worst thing that happens to you today is you hit it in the native, then you're doing pretty good. THE MODERATOR: She's probably under selling herself. What she's going to bring to this team. You can run her up there five times. ANGELA STANFORD: First her maturity. She's a little bit older. If you consider upper 20s old, which on this team is‑‑ so but I think she played on a lot of high school state championship teams. I think any time you bring a team player into this team atmosphere it helps. She's great. She's all about the team. She is laid back. It is just her third year. People keep talking about this win and it's just a matter of time and people don't really know when it comes to golf, but she brings a lot to the table this week. THE MODERATOR: Is the loss from Killeen Castle, something that's really burned inside of you and the rest of your teammates or something you tried to put past you and say forget about it? ANGELA STANFORD: I don't think you can say forget about it because if you don't use it for motivation then I think you're kind of missing that. I remember the feeling waking up Monday morning in Ireland and thinking, man, I'm going to have to listen to the Europeans for two years. So we hear it and we see them every week when we play against them, and so I think that our team has used it as motivation. Q. Angela, are the Americans at a disadvantage playing match play since Europeans kind of grew up playing that and just as kids? ANGELA STANFORD: I don't think so. That's hard to say as a general idea. I think ‑‑ I don't know. I think all 24 players that are here this week are pretty darn good. So I think it's going to be a birdiefest out there and I would say that's a very general concept now. Q. I meant in match play portion, not who would be favored as a team. ANGELA STANFORD: I don't think so. Maybe I'm just not aware of it. But I know quite a few girls on our team played Junior Solheim Cup, and they have played amateurs and they have played juniors and they have played a fair amount of match play also. So I don't even think about that. GERINA PILLER: Well, for me, I didn't grow up playing match play, so‑‑ but I think back home when you practice or play you're always kind of playing a match. We play on TOUR, we play teams or we go back to our club back home, so it's kind of the same thing. You don't really think about it like that. Until you get out here and you're like, oh, I really have played matches a lot just back home betting and playing with the guys back home. Q. What's the best present you've been given so far? GERINA PILLER: The best present I've been given so far is the invitation to come to this event. (Laughter.) ANGELA STANFORD: That's a pretty good one. GERINA PILLER: Everything after that is just icing on the cake. So I'm just‑‑ I couldn't be more proud to wear the red, white and blue. Q. But what you got in the room. I heard you got a lot of cool stuff. We have already had that brought up here. GERINA PILLER: I think my favorite thing is our stars and stripes cowboy boots. Those are probably my favorite. Q. Who your favorite baseball team is, both of you guys? GERINA PILLER: Texas Rangers. THE MODERATOR: So that might be a little bit of a tie in, yeah. Lizette Salas and Stacy Lewis were up here talking, giving us a sense of what's in the team room and we heard basketball, we heard corn hole. What are some things that get you guys fired up. I know you're big baseball fans. ANGELA STANFORD: The big screen had a baseball game on so I thought that was kind of cool. I like the basketball. It seemed like everybody was having a good time last night except we weren't really playing the basketball game like we were supposed to. THE MODERATOR: I'm bating you because everybody says you were it. You're the one. The best shot so far, is that accurate. ANGELA STANFORD: Yeah, the tape on the ground I have the farthest tape back from the‑‑ Q. 25 feet? 30 feet? Koby Bryant in trouble? ANGELA STANFORD: We got to go yards. Its pretty far. Well the caddies started it. Of course we got to beat the caddies. THE MODERATOR: Altitude helpful? ANGELA STANFORD: It does hang in the air a little bit longer. Q. Angela you talked about Meg's personality rubbing off on the team. In general does that happen because you've played under some different personality captains, do they have‑‑ does their personality impacts the team? ANGELA STANFORD: I think for sure. I think more than people know. And I hopefully one day, if I get to be a captain, I'm going to be very aware of that. I could go down the line and of all the captains I've had and tell you how they affected our teams and Meg just from day one has just had a smile on her face. That's very relaxing. People say, oh, well, whoever, I don't know, are we the favorites here? I don't even know. People want to tell us that we're the favorites, but it's still golf. You still have to get the ball in the hole, it's still stressful, they're an amazing team over there‑‑ it's still golf. Meg has just done a great job of just relaxing everybody and making sure that we're ready to go play. She's just‑‑ the way that she makes you feel at ease and she's rooting for you and she's just been great about it. THE MODERATOR: Last thing, ticket sales have been incredible here in the Parker Colorado, Denver area. There's also a rumor that many many many Europeans are making this a destination for vacation this week. Do you have a message, both of you, for the American fans who might be out there in support? I'll let you go first Gerina. GERINA PILLER: A message? This is hard, because this is my first time. I don't really know what to say. ANGELA STANFORD: We should do what our buddy Kristy McPherson says, y'all got to get loud out there. GERINA PILLER: Loud is good. I think the more the chanting and just supporting us and giving us that confidence out there to just know that they're behind us and no matter what happens, I think that's probably huge. THE MODERATOR: You get the last word. ANGELA STANFORD: They just got to show up. I mean fans got to get out there in the red, white, and blue and just go crazy and just yell because we know the European fans can get loud. So we need the red, white, and blue to show up this week. THE MODERATOR: Ladies, thank you very much for coming in. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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